::: A Short History of English Banknotes ::: Where did banknotes come from? The earliest banking involved money-changing between coin and bullion and between different currencies, issuing bills of exchange (in the form of a letter asking one person to pay a sum of money to another on behalf of the person who wrote the letter) and accepting deposit of valuables or money which earned interest. English bankers found they had a steady level of money deposited with them and used this to provide loans on which they then charged interest. About this time they allowed customers to transfer a credit amount to someone else by writing an order to the bank - the forerunner of the bank 'cheque'. It was the bill of exchange which led to the issue of banknotes. On 27th July 1694 William Paterson, a Scottish merchant originally from Tinwald in Dumfries, obtained a Royal Charter from the king, William III, to form the the Bank of England in order to raise funds for the government of the day and started to issue banknotes. These were handwritten and made out to an individual who could cash them at any branch of the issuing bank.

The Bank of England Act was passed which established the Bank of England as the worldï¿½s first national bank. Its first Governor was Sir John Houblon and the first Chief Cashier, briefly, was John Kendrick, about whom little is known. In 1697 the first watermark was introduced. From 1725 the notes were partially printed with just the name to whom payable, date, amount and cashierï¿½s signature to be filled in by hand. Businessmen set up banks in London and 'provincial' banks as a way of raising capital for investment from the late eighteenth century. However by 1770 London banks had given up issuing their own notes and used the Bank of England banknotes instead.

The banknotes from 1725 were issued for amounts of ï¿½20, ï¿½25, ï¿½30 up to ï¿½100 in ï¿½10 stages, then ï¿½100 to ï¿½500 in ï¿½100 stages and lastly a ï¿½1000 note; in 1759 the first ï¿½10 and ï¿½15 notes appeared, in 1793 with economic difficulties due to the Napoleonic War a ï¿½5 note was introduced and in 1797 ï¿½2 and ï¿½1 notes. A total of 19 different notes! Worth noting that at this time ï¿½5 was more than the average working person earned in a year so rarely seen! The appearance of the low denomination notes meant that gradually more of the general public had to come to terms with paper money but banknotes were easy to counterfeit as many of their new owners were illiterate and not used to handling notes.

In 1833 Bank of England banknotes were made legal tender for all sums above ï¿½5 in England and Wales as a way of protecting the Bankï¿½s bullion reserves in times of crisis. However most of the notes over ï¿½10 had disappeared by 1852, the ï¿½300 by 1893 and the ï¿½200 in 1918. This left just the ï¿½10, ï¿½20, ï¿½50, ï¿½100, ï¿½500 and ï¿½1000 which were withdrawn in 1943. The ï¿½10 reappeared in 1964, the ï¿½20 in 1970 and the ï¿½50 in 1981. The big change came in 1855 when banknotes were fully printed including the chief cashierï¿½s signature and had the words I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of ....

People could use a banknote instead of coins and the system worked as long as people had confidence that the bank had the coin to redeem the note. In 1884 the Government decided to regulate the issue of banknotes by the Bank Charter Act and from then on the private provincial banks gradually merged until by 1921 the last provincial note had been issued. In 1914, the first issue Treasury notes, red 10 shillings and black ï¿½1, were signed by Sir John Bradbury and afterwards Sir Norman Fenwick Warren Fisher. A Tale of Two Women Up to 1928 banknotes were ï¿½whiteï¿½ notes printed in black on white paper and unprinted on the back. However on 22nd November the Bank of England took over the issue of banknotes from the Treasury and produced full colour 10/- and ï¿½1 notes printed on both sides. This first series is called Britannia Series A as they featured a rather demure seated Britannia with curiously a spear and an olive branch possibly offering a choice of peace or war.

The bee skep beside her may symbolise the bank as a store of the nation's riches or the industry of the bank in looking after the nationï¿½s money. The idea of dressing Britannia as a noble Saxon lady came from Daniel Maclise, RA, in 1855 who used his daughter as the model. The ornamental clasp on her cape indicates a rank of nobility. They were issued up to the early 1960's by four Chief Cashiers, Basil Catterns (19th Chief Cashier) 29-34, Kenneth Peppiatt 34-49, Percival Beale 49-55 and Leslie Oï¿½Brien 55-62. During the period from 1926 on the Bank of England set up 14 branches around the country which issued banknotes. However most ended by 1938, only Swansea continued until 1959 and Leicester issued notes from 1944 to 1972.

During the Second World War Germany produced some excellent forgeries so in 1940 the color of the Peppiatt 10/- note was altered to mauve and the ï¿½1 to blue. The regular colours returned after the war. In February 1957 the white ï¿½5 was finally replaced by a curious single note series known as Helmeted Britannia Series B. These were only issued under L.K.Oï¿½Brien and feature this lovely portrait. The artist Richard Horsman Solly created the first helmeted Britannia in 1818 as a proposal for a new series of ï¿½inimitableï¿½ one pound notes. The image was never used but artist Stephen Gooden recalled it almost exactly for the Britannia used on this blue five-pound note. On the reverse is a superb lion carrying a key. This note only lasted until 1964 when the Queen had given her permission to include her portrait on banknotes and the Portrait Series C appeared with a portrait designed by Robert Austin, Professor of Engraving at the Royal College of Art.

The 10/- note was issued from 1963, the ï¿½1 from 1960, the ï¿½5 from 1963 and the ï¿½10 from 1964 by four Chief Cashiers, Leslie Oï¿½Brien, Jasper Hollom 62-66, John Fforde 66-70 and John Page 70-80. On the Jasper Hollom ï¿½5 and ï¿½10 notes, the Queen has turned to look at us and a rather sad Britannia on the reverse of the ï¿½5 has found a shield and a pile of boulders. On the reverse of the ï¿½10, a rather odd lion holds the key. Ten years later the next series began to appear - the Pictorial Series D with a gentler portrait of the Queen and full-length pictures of English notables on the reverse. The John Fforde 10 shilling note had been replaced by the 50p coin in 1968 and so the smallest denomination from then on was the ï¿½1 note.

The notes featured: ï¿½1 - Sir Isaac Newton ï¿½5 - Duke of Wellington ï¿½10 - Florence Nightingale ï¿½20 - William Shakespeare ï¿½50 - Sir Christopher Wren The ï¿½1 note was issued from 1978, the ï¿½5 from 1971, the ï¿½10 from 1975, the ï¿½20 from 1970 and the ï¿½50 from 1981. The Chief Cashiers who issued them were John Fforde, John Page, David Somerset 80-88, Malcolm Gill 88-91 and Graham Kentfield 91-98. With devaluation over the years, the ï¿½1 note was replaced by a coin in 1983 and the last ï¿½1 note was issued by David Somerset in 1985. It went out of circulation in 1988. The next major series came in 1990 with Historical Series E.

A more mature Queen's portrait by artist Harry Eccleston and portraits of famous people and appropriate scenes on the reverse. Incidentally this series was the first to include a copyright notice although it always was, and is, a criminal offence to forge banknotes so what its purpose is remains obscure. The notes featured: ï¿½5 - George Stephenson and the Rocket locomotive ï¿½10 - Charles Dickens and The Pickwick Papers ï¿½20 - Michael Faraday and the Christmas Lectures ï¿½50 - Sir John Houblon and his house in Threadneedle Street. The green ï¿½5 note was issued from June 1990, the ï¿½10 from April 1992, the ï¿½20 from June 1991 (all revised in 1993 to aid the partially sighted) and the ï¿½50 from April 1994. The three Chief Cashiers who issued this series were Malcolm Gill, Graham Kentfield and Merlyn Lowther 99-03, who was the first female Chief Cashier.

Finally New (Revised) Series E ï¿½5 - Elizabeth Fry, showing a scene with her reading to prisoners in Newgate Prison ï¿½10 - Charles Darwin, a hummingbird and the HMS Beagle ï¿½20 - Sir Edward Elgar with a view of the west face of Worcester Cathedral. The ï¿½5 was issued from May 2002, the ï¿½10 from November 2000 and the ï¿½20 from June 1999. This replacement series was issued by Merlyn Lowther. In March 2007 the first note from the New Series F entered circulation. ï¿½20 - Adam Smith, with an illustration of ï¿½The division of labour in pin manufacturingï¿½, replaced the Series E Elgar note. It was issued by Andrew Bailey, the 30th Chief Cashier of the Bank of England. Sadly Britannia is now relegated to a very minor role and, only 7mm tall she is tucked away in a corner with her rocks, branch, spear and shield. Paper and Printing The paper used has always been chosen so as to give a distinct look and feel.

It is 80 to 90 gsm paper manufactured from cotton fibre sometimes mixed with linen and is impregnated with polyvinyl alcohol or gelatin to give it extra strength. One of the first papermakers was the firm started by a Huguenot, Henri de Portal, in 1712 at Bere Mill and in 1718 at Laverstoke Mill both on the river Test near Overton in Hampshire and carried on by his son Joseph Portal who bought Laverstoke Manor. They produced paper for Bank of England notes from 1724. They also invented the metallic thread incorporated into the paper which started off within the paper and latterly is allowed to come to the surface as a dotted line called 'windowed thread'. Printing is a combination of three processes ï¿½ Offset Lithography for the background tints and fine lines; Intaglio Printing gives the stronger coloured fine detail with slightly raised print and also never completely dries which is a useful security test; Letterpress is used for serial numbers. Some printing changes have been marked on the reverse of the banknotes.

In 1973 the Somerset ï¿½1 note was printed on a new web press and a little W appears; the ï¿½5 was also moved to a web press with offset lithography on the reverse, marked L; the 1984 ï¿½10 note on a web press was also marked W on the reverse. The latest security features to make life difficult for forgers include: holograms, fluorescent features, varnish coating, foil impression, windowed metallic thread and extremely fine print. POSTSCRIPT: Numismatics is the study of money, particularly coins, and a numismatist is a collector. However Notaphily is the study of paper money or banknotes and a notaphilist is a collector of such (according to Wikipedia). More about English coins . Sources: Old British Money / Useful Notes - TV Tropes — Good Omens You're reading a novel set in Victorian London and someone gives someone "three and six". Wait: they gave them what? Welcome to the world of pounds, shillings and pence, the 'Old Money' of Britain and parts of the Commonwealth before it went decimal in 1971.

The rules: 12 pence ('penny' in the singular; symbol is d from the Latin denarius, a Roman coin) to the shilling (s for solidus). Originally, a penny was 1/240th of a pound of sterling silvernote (to this day, a 'pennyweight' is an apothecary unit equal to 1/240 of a Troy pound, or 1/20 of a Troy ounce) ï¿½ about 1.4 grams, which was worth about £1.25 as of 2011. 20 shillings (240 pence) to the pound (£, as a migration from L for the old Latin libra, making this the L.s.d. (librae, solidi, denarii) system, and not much more comprehensible than the drug). "Three and six" means three shillings and sixpence.

The 'stroke' or 'slash' symbol / (also called a solidus, which originated as ſ, the long-s character) was often used to indicate shillings when writing amounts of money in figures; three shillings sixpence would be written "3/6". Three shillings exactly would be "3/-". Prices higher than a pound, e.g. 4 pounds 3 shillings and 4 pence, were spoken as "four pounds three and four" and written as something like £4-3-4, £4/3/4d or £4.3s.4d. (As the song 'Boy For Sale' from Oliver! mentions, £4.3s.4d is exactly 1000 pence.) On bills from this period you will often see the @ sign used to indicate a particular item is priced "@ 3/6" or whatever: this was responsible for popularising the symbol on typewriters, then computer keyboards, and therefore ultimately why it was used in email addresses later on.

The pound's full name is the 'pound sterling', denoting that a pound was originally a gold coin (called a 'sovereign'note (a now rare slang term for a pound is a "sov")) equal in value to one troy pound in weight of sterling silver . The "shilling" was originally a unit of account referring to the value of a sheep or a cow in Kent or some such. (No, really.) Then you get onto the other coins: Farthing ï¿½ one quarter of a penny (i.e. a 'fourthing', but pronounced with a hard th as in "farther"). It was not minted after 1956, and was not legal tender after 1960. Since a penny originally had roughly the buying power of one of today's pounds, the farthing was actually quite useful for most of its history. Ha'penny/Halfpenny ï¿½ yes, half a penny.

Pronounced "haypnee" even when written in full.note (The full version is the surname of a former EastEnders / Waterloo Road star, and of a current Welsh international rugby player.) The pre-decimal ha'penny was one inch in diameter. Still existed after 1971's decimalisation, but was discontinued in 1984. Tuppence ï¿½ 2d. Pronounced with the same vowel sounds as "buttons". Threepence ï¿½ 3d. Pronounced to rhyme with the above, something like "thruppence" or "throopunce". As mentioned in Good Omens above, the coin itself was often called a 'thrupenny bit', again pronounced "thrupnee". Groat ï¿½ 4d, discontinued in the seventeenth century.note Though the filming rights to our quoted novel, Good Omens , were reportedly sold to Terry Gilliam for a groat anyway. Sixpence ï¿½ 6d. This small silver coin was known as a 'tanner'.

Florin ï¿½ 2/- (two shillings, or 24d; one tenth of a pound). Also known as 'two bob', as a shilling was often known as a 'bob'. Half crown ï¿½ 2/6 (two shillings sixpence, or 30d; one eighth of a pound). Also called "half a dollar" because in the 1940s when US money arrived with the troops during World War II this was its approximate value. Crown ï¿½ 5/- (five shillings; one quarter of a pound). Also sometimes called a dollar, see above. Noble ï¿½ 6/8 (six shillings and eight pence, or 80d; one third of a pound). Half sovereign - 10/- (ten shillings, or 120d; one half of a pound). Replaced in The Twenties by the ten-bob note. Mark ï¿½ 13/4 (thirteen shillings and four pence, or 160d; two thirds of a pound).

Only ever used as a unit of account in some areas, and quite archaic even before decimalisation; it shared a root with and was similar in value to the German currency of the same name. Guinea ï¿½ £1 1/- (one pound and one shilling, or 21s, or 252d). An oddity in that it represented a value long after it ceased to be a coin, which was named after the west African country where much of the gold used to make them was mined. Officially replaced by the pound coin in 1816, the value was still used for pricing purposes by professionals ï¿½ the British love class : a tradesman would present his bill in pounds, a doctor or lawyer would charge you in guineas. Today, it remains in use in the names of 'Classic' horse races the 1,000 Guineas and 2,000 Guineas, although their prize funds are now much higher.

Decimalised to £1.05, it is also still used in the sale of livestock at auction, where the buyer pays guineas yet the seller receives the same number of pounds; the extra 5p per pound is traditionally the auctioneer's commission. Other older still denominations existed before the seventeenth century, of which the most impressive is the Triple Unite ï¿½ £3 (three pounds, or sixty shillings), an exceedingly rare coin, nearly an ounce in weight, produced only in 1642-4 during the English Civil War . A rather odd, half-hearted attempt at decimalisation was introduced in Victorian times when a large number of florins (two-bob bits) were minted, officially as tenths of a pound. The design was hugely controversial, as, on the front, the queen's portrait was accompanied by the words Victoria Regina (' Queen Victoria ') rather than the conventional Victoria Dei Gratia Regina ('Victoria, Queen by the Grace of God'). The "Godless Florins" were denounced by clergymen in much the same way that US dollars without 'In God We Trust' would be today, even though that motto is Newer Than They Think .

Modern coins carry the inscription Elizabeth II Dei Gratia Regina Fidei Defensor (usually abbreviated to ELIZABETH II D G REG F D on most coins, thought the £2 has more space, so there it's ELIZABETH II DEI GRA REG FID DEF), meaning ' Elizabeth II , by the grace of God, Queen and Defender of the Faith'. References to pre-decimalisation currency will often say that a shilling was worth 5 pence. This is because when the changeover was effected, one old pound had to equal one new pound despite the former having 240 pence and the latter 100. This is because sterling was, and to an extent still is, a major reserve currency; messing with its value would have been too much of a headache for central banks.note (As mentioned below, this is in contrast to the former sterling countries like Australia, which kept their penny values the same and simply changed what those pennies added up to ï¿½ 100 to a dollar instead of 240 to a pound ï¿½ and got rid of shillings completely.) Therefore, all smaller denominations had to be converted in proportion to the pound.

One old shilling (12d or old pence) was converted to 5 new pencenote (and no, 'new pence' is not pronounced "nuppence") and thereby remained one-twentieth of a pound. 'How many pence made up a shilling?' is therefore a common trick question in quizzes and the like. Note that this meant that one new penny was actually worth slightly more than two old pence, by 1/600th of a pound (between a farthing and a ha'penny). Post-decimalisation, the old shilling coins continued to be used for many years as 5p alongside their same-sized decimal replacements, as did florins for 10p. They finally went out of circulation in the 1990s when the size of 5p and 10p coins was reduced. It's a general rule that anyone who was around before decimalisation will always insist that Old Money was far superior.

This is partly attributable to Nostalgia Filter and association with the fact that the pound was much stronger then (for unrelated economic reasons) and bought more, but the case can be made that people were better at mental arithmetic when they had to wrestle with £.s.d. every day.note (One thing in the old system's favour is the fact that 240 is one of those numbers that can be easily subdivided into almost any workable fraction imaginable. The human brain naturally thinks in fractions ï¿½ even if that fraction is hundredths ï¿½ so the smaller the denominator used, the more quickly a value can be understood.) New Money Great Britain switched to decimal currency in 1971. This was shortly after it began to (reluctantly) switch over to the metric system ï¿½ incidentally, a process still not completed. Despite this, the unit of currency was not changed from the pound to the kilogram. ( Rimshot ) British coins always have the current monarch's head in profile on the 'heads' (obverse) side ï¿½ traditionally facing in the opposite direction to that of their predecessor.

The design of the 'tails' (reverse) side varies depending on when the coin was minted. Bank notes have HM The Queen 's portrait on one side and a building or person of historical significance on the other, as well as a metal 'counterfeit strip' embedded to prevent forgeries. Since 2008 the tails sides of the 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, and 50p coins each feature a different segment of the 'Royal Shield' (the escutcheon of the royal coat of arms ); you can get a full(ish) view of the Shield by placing a complete set of coins together. The £1 has the whole Shield on it, while the £2 has some odd ringy-design. More detailed descriptions of the coins can be found on The Other Wiki . For those that are interested the coins and notes used in the modern, decimal system of currency (pounds and pence) are: Coppers: Copper-coloured coins made from, well, copper alloys.

More recent issues are made of iron plated with copper alloy, when the cost of making a solid copper coin began to exceed the actual value of the coin ï¿½ new 'coppers' can be distinguished from old ones by the fact that they're magnetic. Both are round with smooth edges. 1p ï¿½ 18mm in diameter. 2p ï¿½ 25mm in diameter. There was originally a 1/2p coin but it was withdrawn in 1984. While the decimal ha'penny always read HALF PENNY, the 1p and 2p issued in 1971 (and several subsequent batches) bore the legend NEW PENNY and NEW PENCE respectively, before being changed in the 1990s for ONE PENNY and TWO PENCE. All the higher-denomination decimal coins also said 'New Pence' up until 1982, but the 1p and 2p are the only ones from that era that remain in circulation ï¿½ the others have all changed their size since, so older ones are no longer around.

Coppers are often used as weights for dealing drugs, as their weights match the convention of selling drugs in power-of-two fractions of an ounce: a 2p coin weighs 7g (1/4oz), a 1p coin weighs 3.5g (1/8oz). The 1/2p coin weighed 1.75g (1/16 oz) and the accuracy of this size deal suffered when the coin was withdrawn and dealers moved to using digital scales which only indicated down to tenths of a gramme. Silver: Silver-coloured coins of varying shapes. Actually contain no silver (which would make them worth a lot more than their denominations) but consist of an alloy of 75% copper and 25% nickel.note (So they're actually a lot more copper than the 'coppers' are.) 5p ï¿½ Slightly smaller than 1p coins. They have tiny indentations around the edge, also known as 'milled' edges. 10p ï¿½ Slightly smaller than 2p coins. They also have indentations.

20p ï¿½ Slightly larger than 1p coins, 7-sided with rounded corners and edges, deliberately designed as such to be able to roll. Introduced in 1982. 50p ï¿½ Like a 20p coin but a little larger than a 2p coin. The 5p, 10p and 50p were reduced in size in 1990, 1992, and 1997 respectively. Previously the 5p was the size of today's 10p and the 10p and 50p were rather larger and heavier. This, as noted, is why you'll occasionally still find 1p and 2p coins as old as 1971 in your change, but not the other denominations. It's a shame, because it was always interesting to find old one-shilling and two-shilling coins that were used as 5p and 10p respectively post-decimalisation (they were the same size).

Pound Coins: Unlike USD , £1 and £2 denominations are in coin form note (the US does mint a brass one-dollar coin, but it hasn't caught on due to Congress/The Fed's refusal to axe the dollar bill. Canada has $1 and $2 coins, and no paper money in those denominations). A paper £1 existed for a time, but was phased out because they were always horrendously tatty. There are still £1 notes in Scotland. £1 ï¿½ Round, golden coloured and slightly fatter than other coins. Has milled indentations and the Latin phrase DECUS ET TUTAMEN ('An ornament and a safeguard') around the edge. The phrase refers to this 'milling', those little grooves on the edges of coins. Milling coins was introduced by then-Royal Mint director Sir Isaac Newton as both a decoration and as a defence against the then-common practice of 'clipping'note (carefully shaving off bits of precious metal from the edges of coins, keeping the shavings, and passing off the clipped coin as full value. Milling a coin makes it easy to spot if it has been clipped.

Clipping was not only bad because it was dishonest, but because it debased the currency, which eventually led to unwanted inflation). Welsh-design coins use a different phrase, the Welsh PLEIDIOL WYF I'M GWLAD ('True am I to my country'); Scottish-design coins the Latin NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT ('No-one provokes me with impunity')note (the motto of the Order of the Thistle , as well as three extant and several defunct Scottish regiments, as well as Canadian and South African regiments of Scottish descent. The use of the motto caused some fuss as some Scots were angry it used Latin rather that the Gaelic "Cha togar m' fhearg gun dìoladh" . Thatï¿½s right; not only does Scottish coinage carry a Badass Boast , but some people were sufficiently badass to scrap over what language it carried this boast in ). The reverse design varies from year to year, with some designs being reused. Commonly-used designs are the coats of arms of the UK nations and their national plants.

In 2017, the pound coin is to be replaced by a dodecagonal design "inspired" by the pre-decimal thrupenny bit, to be bimetallic like the £2 coin with a "silver" centre and "gold" ring. It is claimed that this will be more difficult to forge, with as many as 3% of pound coins in circulation allegedly being forgeries. £2 ï¿½ Consists of a "silver" part slightly smaller than a 1p coin and a gold "rim" which makes it about the size of a 50p, with milled edges, and the inscription STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS around the edge. This is a double reference to the fact that the standard coin depicts technological progress on the back, and that this is a quote by Newton (see above). The £2 has more limited-edition year-specific runs than any other coin and a good percentage of those in circulation at any time will have unique tails designs and edge descriptions rather than the standard one.

For a coin that depicts technological progress it's rather odd that it depicts a circular gear-train with an odd number (19) of cogs, which would lock solid if they were used. £5 ï¿½ Usually commemorative issues. They're legal tender but not in general circulation and unlikely to be accepted as payment. Occasionally the introduction of a regular £5 coin is proposed, but so far there isn't one. Bank Notes ï¿½ Paper money UK bank notes can be distinguished by colour, size, and whose portrait appears on the reverse side to the Queen. (Note that the date ranges below overlap, as they are the years when the notes involved were legal tender.) Presently made from cotton paper, from 2016 polymer (plastic) bank notes are being introduced after a public consultation found that the majority of people were in favour of them. £5 ï¿½ Blue or green ink (depending on when they were printed and who you ask).

Portrait: The Duke of Wellington (1971-1991); George Stephenson, pioneering railway engineer (1990-2003); Elizabeth Fry, campaigner responsible for reforming the prison system (2002-2016); Winston Churchill (2016-, also the first fiver and bank note overall to be printed in polymer rather than paper). £10 ï¿½ Orange ink with a portrait of: Florence Nightingale, pioneer of modern nursing (1975-1994); Charles Dickens (1992-2003); Charles Darwin, Discoverer of evolution (2000- ); Jane Austen note (chosen specifically to ensure that a bank note will still feature a prominent British woman ï¿½ aside from the Queen ï¿½ after the retirement of Elizabeth Fry from the £5 note.) (projected from 2017). As with the Churchill £5, the latter will mark the introduction of plastic £10 notes.

£20 ï¿½ Purple ink with a portrait of: William Shakespeare (1970-1993); Michael Faraday, scientist (1991-2001); Edward Elgar (1999-2010); Adam Smith, father of modern economics and hater of gamers' guts (2007- ); JMW Turner, painter (projected from 2020). This tends to be the largest denomination anyone will bother with. It is also the largest you'll normally get from an ATM. Following from £5 and £10 notes, they will be plastic from 2020 onwards. £50 ï¿½ Red ink with a portrait of: Sir Christopher Wren, architect (1981-1996); Sir John Houblon, first governor of the Bank of England (1994-2014), Matthew Boulton and James Watt, steam engine engineers (2011- ). Usually only issued from banks by request (typically to put in birthday cards).

This is the largest denomination issued by the Bank of England ï¿½ some Scottish and Northern Irish banks issue £100 notes, which are even rarer than £50s. Can be difficult to pass in some stores due to lacking in change (some expressly do not accept them because of this), and will often be subjected to additional scrutiny due to the commonness of forgeries. £50 notes are also found in the pay packets of the increasingly few people who are paid in cash... or the pockets of those who for various reasons deal entirely in cash. Spend too many of them and you will attract adverse attention. Also the easiest way to get a cash payout in a casino if you are lucky enough to win. Usually very large payouts can be made in bags of £2,500 made up of 50 x £50 (electronic note counters are generally set to batches of 50 to help cashiers count and balance the cash). This, too, will draw a certain amount of unwanted attention. 'Giants' and 'Titans', notes of £1,000,000 and £100,000,000 respectively, also exist.

However they are only used between banks or to back Scottish Pounds and never enter circulation. Forging them would be a waste of time as anyone who isn't a bank who has one has to have stolen it. Apparently they resemble cheques more than regular bank notes, and the Titans are a foot wide. It should also be noted that Scotland still has a few £1 notes in circulation, and has its own note designs, several for each denomination. (The three big Scottish banks ï¿½ Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Clydesdale Bank ï¿½ are all entitled to issue notes under Scots law. The Bank of Scotland notes have pictures of Sir Walter Scott , who petitioned for Scotland to keep its banknotes in 1826.) This can lead to amusing situations such as when an Englishman took his mobile sales stand up to an event in Scotland and on being given a £1 note for a 50p item gave £4.50 change. This wasn't even his first trip to Scotland.

The notes can be distinguished by touch (helpful for blind people and anyone quickly rummaging in their wallet as well as giving automated note counting or deposit machines in banks something to go on) because they get progressively slightly larger as the denomination increases. This also has the helpful side effect of preventing counterfeiters from bleaching lower denomination notes to print higher ones on. Speaking of Scottish and Northern Irish notes, they generally are accepted tender in England and Wales but some shops refuse to take them because their unfamiliarity makes it easier to pass off a forgery as genuine. The Channel Islands , The Isle of Man, Gibraltar , The Falkland Islands and other Crown Dominions also issue sterling notes and coinagenote (technically, they are not sterling, but currencies with a fixed one-to-one exchange rate and a ban on Bureau-de-change charging a fee to change between them, but the coins and notes are physically the same denominations, exactly the same values, and freely exchangeable, so in practical terms who cares?)... which are viewed with even greater suspicion by till operators in England and Wales. The coins look similar enough to pass without comment, but good luck with the notes.

As a footnote, the plural "pence" is used to refer to a given sum of money and "pennies" to refer to a given number of individual 1p coins. "Pee" as in the letter p, as noted in the page quote, is used as a singular and a plural. Also keep in mind that five pound notes and ten pound notes are known as "fiver(s)" and "tenner(s)" respectively, but twenty and fifty pound notes are just called "twent(y/ies)" and "fift(y/ies)". There are some money slang terms: "Quid" ï¿½ from the Latin phrase quid pro quo (something in exchange for something else), "quid" is slang for a pound, or multiples thereof. In the nineteenth century, confusingly, it was slang for a guinea.

"Pavarotti" ï¿½ tenner (Because Luciano Pavarotti is a tenor, get it ?) "Pony" ï¿½ £25 (As in "stick a pony in your pocket" ) "Bottle" or "Tube" (of glue, to rhyme with two) ï¿½ £200 "Monkey" ï¿½ £500 "Bar"/"Grand" ï¿½ £1000 (use varies by region) The term "shrapnel" is often used to refer to loose change, especially large quantities of small-denomination coins. Ireland The Irish Free State/Irish Republic also used old money from its formation (1922) to 1971, except they used a 10-shilling coin instead of a crown (5/-), and did not have a tuppence coin either. The monarch's image was replaced with a harp, and animals or birds were pictured on the reverse side. The coins gave their value in the Irish language: ¼ d. ï¿½ feoirling (farthing) ½ d.

ï¿½ leath phingin (ha'penny) 1 d. ï¿½ pingin (penny) 3 d. ï¿½ leath-reul (threepence) 6 d. ï¿½ reul (sixpence) 1 s. ï¿½ scilling (shilling) 2 s. ï¿½ flóirín (florin) 2 s./6 d. ï¿½ leath choróin (half-crown) 10 s. ï¿½ deich scilling (ten shillings: issued 1966, 83.5% silver, unpopular and mostly withdrawn) Notes were 10 s., £1, £5, £10, £20, £50, £100. Irish New Money The Irish decimal pound was introduced in 1971, with ½ p, 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p and 50p coins. The ha'penny was withdrawn in 1985, and the 20p issued in 1986.

Notes were £1 (featuring the legendary Queen Medb), £5 (John Scotus Eirugena), £10 ( Jonathan Swift ), £20 ( William Butler Yeats ), £50 (Turlough O'Carolan). The old £100 note remained in circulation.

In 1990 a pound coinnote (Often known as the "Punt": a slang term originating from the Gaelic "punt" meaning "Pound" and used both for the Irish pound as a currency system, and the physical £1 coin) was introduced, and the notes became: £5 ï¿½ brown ï¿½ Catherine McAuley £10 ï¿½ green ï¿½ James Joyce £20 ï¿½ purple ï¿½ Daniel O'Connell £50 ï¿½ grey ï¿½ Douglas Hyde £100 ï¿½ red ï¿½ Charles Stewart Parnell On New Year's Day 2003, the Irish pound was replaced by the Euro (issued as 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 cent, ï¿½1 and ï¿½2 coins, and notes of ï¿½5, ï¿½10, ï¿½20, ï¿½50, ï¿½100, ï¿½200 and ï¿½500 (the last three note

 denominations are rarely circulated).

Metrication also began in Ireland in the 1970s, so sometimes imperial units are jokingly referred to as "old money", e.g. comparing speed limits between kilometres and miles per hour (which changed over in 2005). While Britain still uses imperial for distances, this kind of jokey meaning is sometimes used there for Fahrenheit/Celsius or similar. Australia, New Zealand and South Africa The Southern hemisphere used old money too! When originally settled, the colonies just used British pounds, but gradually introduced their own local currencies imaginatively named the Pound which were essentially equal to the Pound Sterling. Since they weren't tied so closely with the notion of the pound, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa decided to decimalize in a different way to the UK and Ireland by making 10 shillings equal to the new currency: ten South African shillings became one rand in 14 February 1961; ten Australian shillings became one Australian dollar on 14 February 1966; and ten New Zealand shillings became one New Zealand dollar on 10 July 1967.

Their values have fluctuated since, and they all have lost their 1c and 2c coins due to inflation making them nearly worthless. New Zealand also lost its 5c coin in 2006, and South Africa is phasing them out as of 2012. Australian Coins All coins carry the image of Queen Elizabeth II on the 'heads' side Copper The now discontinued 1 and 2 cent coins made primarily of... copper . 1c: Carried the image of the feather-tailed glider 2c: Carried the image of the frill necked lizard Silver Silver coloured, hence the name but they are in fact made of an alloy that's 75% copper and 25% nickel with one notable exception 5c: Carries a picture of an echidna 10c: Carries a picture of a Superb Lyrebird 20c: Normally carries a picture of a platypus but there are numerous special commemorative versions minted.

Until New Zealand reduced the size of its 20c coin in 2006, it was easily mixed up with the New Zealand 20c coin to the point where some vending machines didn't discriminate between the two. 50c: Rather than a circle it's a twelve sided shape normally stamped with the Australian coat of arms but has an even longer history of commemorative versions than the 20c coin. There was a circular version of the 50c coin minted in 1966 and it's technically still legal tender. However you'd be a fool to use it as such because it's 80% silver which makes it worth about ten times its face value not even counting its limited run. Gold In 1984 the old one dollar note was phased out and replaced by a coin made of 92% copper, 6% aluminium and 2% nickel which results in a gold coloured alloy. The same was done again with the two dollar note in 1988. Both versions have had commemorative versions made since their introduction, though only a few for the $2 coin.

$1: Has seven kangaroos on its default form $2: The only coin to have a human on the 'tails' side: an aboriginal elder holding a spear. Australian Notes Originally using paper notes in 1988 a special commemorative ten dollar note for the bicentennial of the landing of the First Fleet was issued made from a form of flexible plastic and while there were some initial problems it was eventually decided to change all notes to this form. In addition to the plastic being much harder to copy they were also able to include new security features such as a transparent window. To the general public one of the more popular results of the change was that your money would no longer be reduced to a pulpy mess if it accidentally went through the wash. The colour coding from the old paper series was kept but while the old notes had gotten both taller and wider with increasing value to aid in identification by the blind the new notes were of a uniform height and only the width changed.

$5: Pinky/purple in colour with a bust of Queen Elizabeth II on one side and an image of Parliament house in Canberra on the other on one side and Sir John Monash on the other North America Yes, the United States and Canada once had this kind of money, too. However, they got rid of it over a century before the other countries on the same standard. When British colonists started arriving in the New World, they at first continued to use the currency of the old country ï¿½ i.e. the pound sterling. However, British monetary policy and the vagaries of geography and trade meant that it was quite difficult to get your hands on British coins in North America, and the colonists started to turn elsewhere for coinage. As it happened, the Spanish had a gigantic mint in Mexico City pumping out 8-réal coins (called "pieces of eight" for their value and the ability to cut them up into eight one-réal "bits") of Mexican and South American silver, which were commonly used in international trade.

Eventually, these "Spanish dollars" ï¿½ so-called because they were made to the specifications of the Central European Joachimsthaler, or thaler for short, which were popular across Continental Europe and had been brought to Spain by the Habsburgs ï¿½ became the standard currency in pre- Revolutionary British North America. As a result, the newly-independent United States adopted the dollar as its unit of currency, divided ingeniously into 100 cents from the very beginning at the suggestion of Thomas Jefferson .note (the memory of the old Spanish dollar lingered on in Wall Street, which two hundred years after the establishment of a decimalized currency was still quoting stock prices to the nearest 1/8th of a dollar. {This wasn't for reasons of sentimentality and antiquarianism, of course; it was done to protect stockbrokers' commissions and trading profits from competition ï¿½ if the minimum size possible is $0.125, your rival firms can't lure away your clients by offering to accept only $0.10.

This cozy cartel broke down in the late 1990s, when stocks began to be valued in increments of 1/64th of a dollar and even 1/256th of a dollar. Eventually, sanity prevailed, and US stock prices are now quoted to the nearest cent}. The memory also lingers on in the notion of a quarter being worth "two bits") These silver Spanish dollars weighed about 1.75 troy ounces while the pound sterling was, well [a gold coin equal in value to] a troy pound of sterling silver, or 12 troy ounces. You can see the reason for the (former) vast discrepancy between pounds and dollars ï¿½ the dollar was closer in value to a half-crown than a pound. For further detail, see the article on American Money . This put Canada in a bit of a bind. Since Canada was still British, the War Office (then in charge of managing Britain's colonies) wanted Canada to continue to use the pound sterling as the basis of its currency, but most Canadians, realizing the benefits of easy trade with their far more populous southern neighbour, wanted to assimilate to the American unit.

For a while, a native Canadian pound was adopted, worth slightly less than the sterling for an easier-to-handle exchange rate with the dollar, namely $4 to the pound. As an interesting sidenote: the ha'penny was not issued in English-speaking Upper Canada, but it was issued in French-speaking Lower Canada, where it was known as the sounote Which is still the Quebec French nickname for a Canadian cent. Also, because at an exchange rate of $4 to £1, $0.25 was exactly 15 pence (because when $4=£1, then $1=5s=60d, so $0.25=15d), French-speakers in Quebec came to call the ubiquitous American quarter dollars trente sous ("thirty sous"), and the nickname has stuck for subsequent Canadian and American 25-cent pieces, even though the word sou came to mean "cent" in other contexts. after a similarly low-valued French coin.

However, this situation proved to be untenable, and in 1857 the Province of Canada adopted an American-based decimal currency unit, although the British gold sovereign remained legal tender at a value of $4.86 2/3 (which remained true until the mid 1990s ï¿½ at which point if you used a gold sovereign at face value anyway, you were either desperate or an idiot). When Confederation occurred ten years later, it was this currency that became the Canadian dollar of today. If you made it through all that, you have probably already realized that this is not to be confused with the other kind of Old Money , the opposite of the Nouveau Riche . to go back to the top of the page. :: Indexes ::

Question: Three people have featured on the reverse of the £5 note, the two most recent are George Stephenson and Elizabeth Fry, who was the first?
Answer: Duke of Wellington